I’m rather irked by the accusations that Martin Scorsese underused Anna Paquin in “The Irishman.” The three-and-a-half-hour movie is mostly about men, but who cares? Scorsese is allowed to make the movie he wanted to make. Paquin’s near-silent role has its heartbreaking moments, it’s a character that doesn’t need to be explained via dialogue, the lack of talking says everything we need to know about the uneasy bond between Frank Sheeran and his daughter.
Speaking on The Director’s Cut podcast, while discussing the film with Spike Lee, Scorsese further explained why the film’s only significant female characters is almost completely silent over the course of the epic saga.
“I kept asking [writer] Steve Zaillian if we can layer her in the story,” the filmmaker said. “I decided that she doesn’t have to say anything. You see your father do something like that, I’m sorry… You see him crush the guy’s hand like that… other kids maybe, but this kid couldn’t take it.”
He continued, “She looks at him. She knows he’s up to something and Lucy [Gallina] was great, but Anna ultimately was amazing in the looks. She has one line in the film. There’s something you can’t talk about. She knows it. She knows who she is. He knows she knows. Even when she’s sitting there and the police are talking about Joey Gallo being [murdered.] [The anchor said], ‘A lone gunman walked in..’ and you see she’s looking at him.”
Scorsese’s stance on the matter is much more perceptive and complex than the thin arguments against it. He’s adhering to the belief that the female perspective in a story can be depicted eithout dialogue; the non-verbal communication between father and daughter in “The Irishman” brings about a lot more layers than if Paquin actually had the chance to scream at dad about how she disapproves of his misdeeds.
The whole “controversy”is a total non-starter when it comes to the actual merits of this landmark movie which is set to arrive in select theaters on November 1 and Netflix on November 27.